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Grand jury indicts NMSU student in on-campus shooting

LAS CRUCES - The New Mexico State University student who was shot last month by a campus police officer after allegedly making threats with a handgun was indicted Thursday by a Doña Ana County grand jury.

Karsten Ross Cuthair, 28, is facing charges of third-degree aggravated assault on a peace officer with a deadly weapon and fourth-degree aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, according to an indictment filed Thursday in 3rd Judicial District Court in Las Cruces.

Cuthair also has been charged with unlawfully carrying a deadly weapon on a university and negligent use of a deadly weapon, both petty misdemeanors.

Shortly after 11:30 p.m. Nov. 14, two NMSU police officers, including Officer Jarod Colliver, were dispatched to the Chamisa II Village Apartments, an on-campus housing complex.

The indictment alleges that Cuthair was assaulting another NMSU student who lived in the complex with a Glock 9mm handgun.

Footage from Colliver’s body camera shows that when he made contact with Cuthair, he commanded Cuthair to drop the gun. “Instead, (Cuthair) allegedly turned toward the officer and pointed the gun at him,” the indictment reads.

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New Mexico State University Police Officer Jarrod Colliver, responding to 911 calls of a man with a gun at a campus apartment complex, fired two shots, one striking student Karsten Cuthair, 28, in the right leg. Cuthair survived.

Colliver fired two shots at Cuthair, striking him once in the thigh.

Cuthair was booked into the Doña Ana County jail on Nov. 18 after he was released from University Medical Center in El Paso, jail records show. He is being held on a $50,000 secured bond.

He is scheduled to be arraigned Dec. 12 in 3rd Judicial District Court.